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Primitives and Time Travelers for Space Princess

A couple of new class ideas popped into my head to day for Space Princess, so here goes …

PRIMITIVE

An obscure primitive earthman

Not every warrior in the universe is a star warrior. Quite a few – maybe most warriors – hail from less advanced planets, or have even found themselves transported astrally or bodily through time from a less advanced society. These men and women are called primitives, and they are no less heroic for not having studied practical astrophysics or 25th century literature.

Primitives love to throw themselves into hand-to-hand combat. They score double damage with their fists or hand weapons, and enjoy a +1 bonus to initiative.

Unfortunately, primitives are quite unfamiliar with the futuristic technology common in Space Princess. They suffer a -5 penalty to use super science; the penalty either applies to a test to activate or repair the technology or as a penalty to hit with super science weapons. Each time a primitive is exposed to super science, they afterwards can attempt a KNO test (DC 15). If successful, they reduce their penalty by 1 point, and can eventually eliminate the penalty completely.

The complexities and wonders of space are nothing when compared to time! The time traveler is an expert in quantum mechanics who owns a “quantum device”, also known as a time machine. Time travelers need not be from the “present” of Space Princess – they could be from the far future or even the distant past. There are rumors that a gentleman scientist living in 1895 created one of the first time machines.

HIT DICE: Time Travelers roll d8 to determine hit points

REQUIREMENT: KNO and MEN of 6 or more

SKILLS: Time travelers add their SKILL to the following tests: Quantum Mechanics (KNO)

STARTING GEAR: Quantum device, hand weapon, one super science item

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Level

Hit Dice

Skill

Luck

Time Cadet

2

4

3

Chronic Argonaut

5

8

1

Time Lord

7

12

0

Time travelers have four tricks they can perform with their quantum device. Each one requires a Quantum Mechanics test. Failed tests can be re-tried as many times as the time traveler likes, but the quantum device can be safely used three times per day. Each additional use has a 1 in 6 chance of opening a time rift (see below).

Dimension Door (DC 20): The time traveler can move through a rift in space up to 30 feet away. Any attempt to slide into a space taken up by another physical body results in failure. This can be combined with a Leap Forward in time by increasing the DC by 2 for every round of time to be displaced. The distance one moves with a Dimension Door can be increased by 5 feet for every 1 point increase in the DC.

Leap Backward (DC 15): The time traveler leaps backward in time, materializing within their own body. This has the practical effect of giving them a “do over” on some action they have just attempted.

Leap Forward (DC 15): The time traveler leaps up to three rounds ahead in time. Essentially, they disappear for 3 rounds and then re-appear in the exact same spot, in the exact same position, three rounds later. Each round the time traveler wishes to add to this duration increases the DC of the test by 1.

Time Stop (DC 25): You make time cease to flow for everyone but you. You are free to act for 1d4+1 rounds of apparent time. You can still be harmed by energies that were already in effect (i.e. by walking through a laser beam that has been frozen in time). While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks. You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature that has been time stopped, but you can affect any item that is not in another creature’s possession. You are undetectable while time stop lasts.

If a time rift is opened by the quantum device, roll 1d6 to determine the effect:

1-2. The rift opens and a carnosaur steps through to savage the time traveler and his allies.

3-4. The rift opens and 1d6 morlocks step through to menace the time traveler and his allies.

5. Each creature within 30 feet must pass a MEN test or be thrown 1d10 rounds (roll for each creature) into the future (per the leap forward ability).

6. The temporal energies of the rift alter the people within 30 feet of it. Each person must make a MEN test (DC 20) to avoid these alterations. Those who are altered either become brutish cave people (i.e. change class to Primitive) or evolve into mental supermen (i.e. change class to Esper).

The question is … does a campaign necessarily require “advancement” of some kind? Does John Carter noticeably “gain levels” through the various Mars books? Flash Gordon? the Lone Ranger? Tarzan?

The different levels were really intended to emulate something like Star Wars, in which you have a young Luke Skywalker, old Ben Kenobi and Han Solo somewhere in the middle. They were inspired by Chainmail, and the idea of men-at-arms, heroes and super heroes – three levels, so to speak, of the “fighting-man” class.

I picture Space Princess being more episodic, with each adventure being another episode in a hero's life. Something like “Athena Laserworlf and the Gas Mines of Regulon IV”, followed by “Athena Laserwolf and the Brain Bats of Saturn” and then “Athena Laserwolf and the Catacombs of Mars”.

But yes, I've thought about introducing an experience system and more graduated levels in the Space Princess Companion.